


Lost in the Fumes

by soomiii



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-24
Updated: 2014-12-24
Packaged: 2018-03-03 04:19:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2837705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soomiii/pseuds/soomiii
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Princess fairy tales always seem to have happy endings. 18th century Jemma Simmons's story disagrees.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lost in the Fumes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [natashavomanova](https://archiveofourown.org/users/natashavomanova/gifts).



> Happy holidays and enjoy!

Christmas time was Princess Jemma’s favorite time of the year. At Christmas, the shops down at the village square were flooded with people, buying presents and small gifts for their loved ones. Each shop sold different things. The store closest to the castle sold common goods, and the commoners rushed in and out through its wooden door, purchasing candles and toys for the holiday season. The window in the Princess’s room made it easy to watch that particular store, although she never had a reason to. She was content in the castle that she shared with her mother, Queen Melinda. The queen was a private woman, although she was known as one of the greatest rulers that their country had ever seen. 

As the days got colder, the realization that Christmas was getting closer and closer began to hit harder. Jemma had only bought a couple of gifts - a horse for her mother, and a polished bow, accompanied by it’s arrows, for her best friend, Bobbi Morse. To be frank, as much as she loved the holiday season, buying gifts was always the worst part. Although she was well known throughout the kingdom, she didn’t have many people close to her. She had Bobbi and Leo, of course, both childhood friends that had been glued to her side for as long as she could remember, but other than them, she didn’t have many other people. And that would surely mean that there were less gifts to buy, but it simply put more pressure for Jemma to buy every extravagant present that was out there. She still hadn’t bought a gift for Leo Fitz, her best friend and occasional brother, but she was just thankful that the people that were in her life didn’t spare a thought to the price on her gifts. 

The only person that didn’t cause any anxiety over gift giving was her best friend since they had met as children outside the castle - Barbara Morse, or rather, Bobbi. Bobbi was the person who was closest to her heart. Bobbi knew every single bit of gossip and every single Christmas that the two girls had shared, and if Jemma had to choose between marrying Fitz or Bobbi, she would have chosen the latter, hands down. Bobbi came over every day for tea and they would exchange silly anecdotes and people-watch. Bobbi really was extremely important to Jemma, but they still couldn’t come up with a present for Fitz together.

Eventually, Jemma had settled on a toy monkey when she will laying in bed after one of their late night conversations, but she had put off actually buying it until today, four days before Christmas itself. So after checking with the Royal Guard that was stationed at the castle, she left its stone walls unaccompanied. The guards that followed her around nearly 24/7 were always an inconvenience, and she preferred to journey out without them as much as possible. Her first stop was her favorite common goods store, as it sold toys and Jemma was sure that a monkey would be somewhere among its wares.

Despite the cold, the interior of the store was warm and welcoming. There were many people bustling around the store, buying gifts or supplies to survive the upcoming winter. Children were clustered around the mini train track, where the shop was showing a demonstration of how the kids could build their own train tracks for the train to run an endless loop on. The section that she was looking for - the area where shoppers would generally find stuffed playthings at - wasn’t very crowded, although there were a few families casually browsing.

Wherever in the store she walked, she was always greeted with a “Good morning, Princess Jemma!” or a “How do you do, Princess?” . It wasn’t that she minded a whole lot; in fact, she loved interacting with the common people. She just wished that, maybe, one day, she would be able to be somewhere where she wasn’t recognized as a daughter of the queen. There was more to her than her title, but it seemed as if not a lot of people had recognized that. For some reason, she noticed as she spotted a small, stuffed monkey nearby, she had been left undisturbed in the little area partitioned off for children’s toys.

Perhaps it was because she was a grown woman and she was shopping for stuffed toys. Or maybe it was the presence of the girl that reached for the monkey at the exact same time that she did.

“Oh!” Jemma exclaimed, sharply withdrawing her hand and snapping her gaze up to whoever had taken a similar interest in the monkey. The young woman across from her was taller than her, although not by much, and she had dirty brown hair that showed her poverty, although her shabby clothes didn’t help too much. Despite her battered appearance, Jemma couldn’t help but notice that she was very pretty, and that her eyes, dark brown, seemed to draw her in closer and clos-

“I’m so sorry!” the girl’s eyes widened, snapping Jemma out of her embarrassing stupor. “Here,” she said, grabbing the monkey from the shelf and extending it towards the other girl. “I don’t need it, you can have it, Princess.”

And it was going so well too. The title was to be expected in the end, and Jemma couldn’t have everything. There was something about the girl that seemed oddly familiar, but she couldn’t place it. “No, it’s fine,” Jemma smiled, pushing the toy back towards the girl. “You take it.” She could afford to buy a different present for Leo.

“Really, I don’t have any use for it,” the girl argued, a sudden twinkle appearing in the eye. She was stubborn, but Jemma was beginning to like this girl. Maybe it was how pretty she was, or her eagerness to give the monkey to a stranger - albeit, the princess, but Jemma wanted to get to know her. The twinkle in her eye was definitely something that she had seen before. 

And then she remembered, the brown hair, the twinkle in her eye, the stubborn refusal to turn down anyone. This girl was often in the marketplace outside the castle during the summer, selling daisy necklaces and daisy bracelets. She didn’t make too much money off of her small stand, but she was never unkind to passerby. Bobbi had taken quite a liking to her last summer, which had led to midnight murmurs about the girl in the marketplace. But they had never found out her name.

“What’s your name?” Jemma asked, taking a step closer to the girl. Bobbi would have had a cow if she knew what her best friend was doing at the moment, but the girl was pretty enough that Jemma didn’t care. 

“Daisy,” she said, staring right into Jemma’s eyes, making the princess blush. “But everyone calls me Skye. So you can, y’know, call me that.” Skye. Jemma knew that Skye was a name that she would not forget so easily.

It became painfully obvious that the rest of the store was quiet. It was just Skye and Jemma in the toy section. Parents had ushered their children out the door and away from the two girls, and random shoppers were beginning to stare. Jemma couldn’t blame them. Here they were, two women, getting closer and closer to each other, one being the princess of their home, the other, a peasant who worked in the marketplace.  
“Um,” Skye murmured, grabbing Jemma’s hands suddenly. “Take the monkey. I’ll…be seeing you, I guess.” She thrust the monkey into the other girl’s hands and scurried off, leaving the shop before Jemma could say another word.

Jemma supposed that she must have looked like quite the spectacle. There she was, standing by herself in a completely quiet store, holding a stupid stuffed monkey, with a silly blush and a bewildered look spreading across her face. The shoppers continued with their business, leaving Jemma to contemplate what had just happened. 

One thing was certain. Jemma absolutely had to see Skye again, and it had to be soon. 

~ “And then she just shoved this into my hands and just left!” Jemma giggled, tossing the monkey into Bobbi’s hands and frowning when Bobbi didn’t catch it, as it fell onto Jemma’s bed. “You can’t just let it fall, Bobbi.” She sighed, picking it up and tossing it to her best friend.

“I’m sorry for disrespecting the Holy Monkey of How You Met Your Soulmate,” Bobbi laughed, raising an eyebrow at Jemma when she didn’t laugh back. “Look, Jem, it’s just a monkey. It’ll be alright.”

“Skye is not my soulmate,” Jemma huffed, straightening the stuffed monkey. “D’you think I should still give this to Fitz?”

“One day, you and Skye will get married,” Bobbi declared, holding up the monkey in the air majestically. “And I will be up there, and this monkey will be introduced as the way you two met. So no, you can’t possibly give this to Fitz.”

“Overdramatic,” Jemma muttered under her breath, giving her best friend a playful look. As annoying as Bobbi was being, she still loved her, and she felt a bit bad. She knew how big of a crush she had on Skye in the summer, but she had no idea if Bobbi still harbored those feelings. 

“Princess Jemma? Royal Guard members Christian and Grant Ward request your presence,” the kindly voice came from behind her bedroom door, one of a servant that was always very sweet. Bobbi gave her a questioning look, but Jemma had been expecting their arrival. 

“Thank you. They may enter immediately,” Jemma said, switching from the casual voice that she used with Bobbi, to the regal voice that most of the people in the kingdom had heard.

The leader of the Royal Guard was Christian Ward. He was many years older than Jemma and Bobbi, and everyone knew him. He was feared, but respected. And his younger brother was Grant Ward. Jemma remembered him from when they were younger, and he got picked on after school. She had never disliked him, but they were never close. 

They entered the room first, Christian with his charisma immediately taking over the entire room, and Grant shying behind in the shadow of Christian.

“Princess Jemma,” Christian bowed graciously. “We have located and retrieved Miss Daisy Johnson, as you wished.” 

“You got an extraction team for her?” Bobbi half giggled, half whispered into Jemma’s ear. “I knew you liked her, but I didn’t think that you would go so far!”

“Shush!” Jemma murmured out of the corner of her mouth. Resuming her royal appearance, she stood up from her bed and moved to stand tall in front of the Ward brothers. “I would like to formally thank you both for helping me. Is Skye here?” She asked, trying to look past the two men to see if Skye was behind them.

“Y’know, if you wanted to meet up with me, you didn’t have to get a team to convince me,” a familiar voice sounded from somewhere behind the men. “I would have wanted to see you regardless.” Grant stepped away, moving closer towards Bobbi, to reveal Skye standing there with a teasing smirk on her face. The two men excused themselves, and Bobbi gave Jemma a knowing wink before walking away with them. Jemma just wrinkled her nose in response to her best friend’s antics before turning back to the girl standing in front of her.

“I’m sorry. I hope that they weren’t rude or anything similar,” Jemma said, in concern. “Here, have a seat.” She walked over to her bed and patted the bedding beside her with, what she hoped was, a reassuring smile.

To her relief, Skye followed, and the two found themselves sitting on Jemma’s bed, just staring at each other. Jemma didn’t know what to say. Should she make sure that everything was alright.

“Christian likes you,” Skye blurted, covering her mouth as soon as the words had left it. Jemma’s eyes widened in sudden surprise. That was not the first thing that she thought Skye would say. Not to mention that Christian was very much older than her. Grant would have been closer to her age.

“Whatever do you mean?” It was rather obvious to Jemma what Skye meant, but there was no harm in checking. Maybe Skye had just gotten the wrong signals from the older Ward, and she might not even know what she was talking about. Maybe she had confused Grant and Christian. There had to be some rational explanation behind this.

“You can tell,” Skye said, never taking her eyes off of Jemma. It was beginning to make the princess feel a little bit uncomfortable, but at the same time, she was loving the attention. “He kept on making snide comments to me the entire way here. Commenting on how poor we were, saying how long it took to find me because of how far out from town we live, things like that. And then Grant-”

“Grant, as in his younger brother, Grant?”

“Of course, Grant, as in his younger brother, Grant. He told me that Christian was jealous. Of me,” she laughed, still maintaining eye contact. “But he had good reason to be jealous. Because I’m talking to the most beautiful girl in this town.” 

~ “If they see us-” Jemma protested, only to be interrupted by a quick peck on her lips, courtesy of her girlfriend. Skye had taken her to a tiny park in the slums of the town, one that Jemma didn’t even knew existed.

“They aren’t going to see us,” Skye promised, resting her head on Jemma’s shoulder. “Who are you so afraid of?” Jemma shook her head, and looked pointedly off in a direction away from Skye. “It’s Bobbi, isn’t it?”

“I’m not…I’m not afraid of Bobbi. But I am afraid of Christian Ward,” Jemma said, rolling her eyes. How could Skye think that she was afraid of her best friend? Bobbi would never do anything to hurt her…Christian on the other hand, from Skye’s descriptions, he sounded like someone who would hurt them to get to her.

“I didn’t think you were,” Skye smiled triumphantly. “But you have surely seen how she looks at you.” Skye was acting like she knew something that Jemma didn’t, and it was starting to bother her.

“She looks at me like a best friend. Because I am her best friend, Skye. Please don’t be ridiculous about this,” Jemma sighed, running her hand through Skye’s hair and leaning forward to kiss her, a silent plea to drop the subject. 

“It’s fine,” Skye resigned, kissing Jemma back and fully enveloping herself in just them, at that moment. No one else could ever break the bond that was between them. 

“Miss Daisy Johnson!” Jemma’s heart suddenly sunk. She knew that voice. But that voice was joined by many others, and they were all shouting Skye’s name. She could hear her girlfriend sharply inhale when she heard those three words. 

“It’s alright, Skye. We’ll get them to go away,” Jemma pressed her lips to Skye’s scalp and stood up to face the crowd that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. “What would you wish to discuss, Royal Guard Officer, Christian Ward?” She had to appear strong, for Skye’s sake.

“Princess!” His voice called out, and suddenly, he was front and center. He wore a vapid smirk as he began to walk closer and closer to where the pair was picnicking. “It’s fine, I understand what she’s done to you.”

“What?” Jemma scowled, disregarding Christian’s personal space and electing to take another step forward, challenging him. “Skye hasn’t done anything wrong, and I strongly suggest that you leave. Now.”

Christian spun on his heel, and for a moment, Jemma thought that she had actually won. That was, until he spread his arms apart in a patronizing motion. “Oh, my poor, poor Jemma,” he smiled, letting his toxic smile taint the crowd that had gathered. “She’s delirious, because,” Christian’s smile quickly changed to a menacing snarl. “That woman!” He pointed straight at Skye, who was trying her hardest to appear stone-faced, but her eyes were watery, and her hands were trembling. “That woman is a witch! She has cast a spell on Princess Jemma, in order to make her fall in love with her!” The crowd gasped, almost as if on cue. Jemma shot back a helpless look at Skye. What were they going to do to her? 

“We will condemn Miss Daisy Johnson. For she is a witch and she opposes the throne! She will be burned tomorrow, at the stake. It is the punishment that she deserves!” He screamed out to the cheering crowd. With every word that he spoke, Jemma sank to her knees. This could not be happening. No, this was impossible. How had she failed so miserably at protecting her love?

The pounding from her heart grew louder and louder, until she could not hear anything but her gasping breaths. For the first time that she could remember, she was weak. Why was this the one thing that she would fail at?

And then the crowd was upon them. People threw stones and hit and screamed insult upon insult at the two of them. Jemma could feel nothing but pain - pain from her bruised skin, pain from betrayal, and pain from losing her love. There had to be something that she could do to save Skye. What had gone wrong? Just hours ago, they had been laughing and kissing in the grass, far away from the public eye.

In the commotion, Skye had been torn away from her side. Jemma reached desperately for a hand that wasn’t there. “Skye!” she yelled into the crowd, trying to grab onto her hand, trying to grab onto anything that would keep her by her side. But she was gone, scooped up by Christian Ward. “No! Skye!” she screamed, trying to think of something, anything that would keep her alive. But in that moment, she would have rather been dead.

All the Jemma felt that she could do was close her eyes and hope. Hope that this was all a nightmare. Hope that help would come. Hope that one of the citizen’s stones would hit her heart, and cause her breathing to cease. 

~ “Shh,” a familiar whisper greeted her, as the person held her in their strong arms. 

Jemma’s first instinct was to hit. She didn’t care who this person was, or why they had her. Her hand reached out and pushed, hard, against the person who was carrying her. “No!” she cried out, straining away. “Don’t touch me!” 

“Jemma, please,” the girl said, and Jemma realized that the girl’s voice was just as broken as hers was. “Jemma, it’s me. It’s Bobbi.” One of Bobbi’s hands was stroking her back, a feeble attempt to calm her thrashes down.

“Bobbi!” Jemma buried her head into the crook of her best friend’s neck. “Bobbi, they have Skye. Christian has Skye and he’s convinced everyone that she’s a witch!” With that sentence, everything that had happened to Jemma because so much more real, and the crushing realization hit her like fifty boulders, each one pressing against her until she could not breathe.

“I’m so sorry, Jem,” Bobbi’s broken voice whispered into her ear, and Jemma could hear every emphasized syllable. A stray tear made it’s way down Bobbi’s face and onto Jemma’s, and their shared suffering only got worse. “I’m so sorry, Jemma, but I don’t think that we can rescue Skye.”

“Bobbi, don’t you dare say that,” Jemma trembled in her arms, in pieces, but still determined to rescue her darling from a certain death. “I’ll go. To the burning. We can save her there, right, Bobbi?”

“If you think we can, it is guaranteed,” Bobbi lied, trying to keep her head up for Jemma. In reality, she did not believe that they would be able to save Skye. But the woman that she loved needed help, and she was willing to risk everything to help her. 

~ By the time the two arrived at the courtyard from the tiny park where Jemma’s life had crumbled apart, there was already a wooden pole standing, with workers building a small pyre at the base of the pole. “I need to find her,” Jemma declared to Bobbi, who had finally let her stand. 

There was no need, because Christian was among the crowd gathering, and he was parading the criminal around. “Ah, my Princess!” he spotted her right away, dragging a beaten and battered Skye with him. “I did not expect to see you today!” he said in a matter that was entirely too cheerful for the occasion at hand. “Daisy, say hello.”

“You are going to let Skye go,” Jemma said, straightening up, as to appear taller. “You are going to forget all about this, or else there will be consequences.” She was completely grasping at straws, but this was one of her last chances before the pyre would be lit. This needed to work, and Jemma didn’t know what she could possibly do to save Skye otherwise.

“Oh, my naive Princess,” Christian taunted, holding Skye close enough that Jemma could reach out and touch her, reassure her that everything was going to turn out fine in the end of their fairy tale, but she was beginning to lose hope. Christian only gave them a few seconds before marching off with Skye, but a few seconds was long enough for them to exchange a final, longing look.

“Bobbi,” Jemma reached out for her best friend and rested her head on Bobbi’s chest. “They’re going to do it. They’re going to execute my girlfriend.” Her voice was hollow, like someone who had been through hell and back. Bobbi attempted to reassure her, but besides from whispered words of false encouragement, she couldn’t possibly do much. 

“Jemma, we need to go,” Bobbi murmured, drawing Jemma close to her. “I don’t want you to see this.” Bobbi needed a way to get Jemma away before she did something rash, like trying to exchange herself for Skye. Jemma loved Skye, and Bobbi completely understood, but witnessing this execution would do nothing but harm her severely. 

“I need to see this, Bobbi,” Jemma’s voice cracked, struggling to say every word. “I need to remember this, and I need this to be seared in my memory until the day that I die, for this will always fuel hatred for Christian Ward, and I need that hatred until the day that he dies.” 

“It’s perfectly fine,” Bobbi sighed into Jemma’s hair, trying to stay composed for Jemma’s sake. She had never seen an execution before, but she had no choice in this matter. She was going to make it through for Jemma’s sake, and after this, it was her duty to hold her and take care of her while she recovered from her heartbreak.

Christian Ward stepped up in front of the crowd and announced her crimes. “Miss Daisy Johnson is guilty of the following crime: using witchcraft to bewitch our princess, Princess Jemma Simmons, into an illicit relationship,” he paused to let the large crowd take in the information. “She will be burned at the stake, today.” The entirety of the crowd clapped and shouted in approval.

It was making Jemma sick. As Skye was led up to stand on the pyre, Jemma followed her with her eyes the entire way. Bobbi was holding on to her tight, but Jemma only had eyes for Skye. Even when she had admitted defeat, so close to death, her head was tilted defiantly, beautifully, as always. She was so beautiful. 

“I love you,” Skye did not know if Jemma would be able to hear her over the joy of the crowd waiting to see her burn, but she just needed to see one thing, one thing to know that Jemma would stay steady after her death.

When the pyre was lighted, Jemma had one arm around Bobbi, and the other, holding up their stuffed monkey.


End file.
